51AVÊÓƵ

With a focus on health and well-being, agricultural charity The Farming Community Network (FCN) has launched a new initiative to help farmers and farm businesses build resilience.

Launched through the charity's site, FarmWell, its new ‘Greenzone Checklist' contains helpful information that farmers can download or print off.

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The idea is that they can then identify areas that perhaps need more work.Ìý

Checklist topics centre on partnership agreements, business objectives, work-life balance, succession planning and links with local community, and one farmer who has used the checklist with their family said, ‘it is a well-oiled key to unlock a sometimes very rusty and stubborn box'.

FCN launched FarmWell in 2019 and has seen more than 50,000 visitors to the platform.

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Dr Jude McCann, chief executive of The Farming Community Network, said: "Since launch, FarmWell has supported thousands of farmers in exploring their options and planning ahead. We are delighted to now be launching the Greenzone Checklist through FarmWell, which is an easy-to-use way of assessing what is going well on the farm, and areas that might be beneficial to explore further.Ìý

"This is part of FCN's proactive work to support farmers' health, wellbeing and business resilience and to help people to explore their options."

Mark Suthern, chair of The Farming Community Network also said the new resilience checklist will ‘help farmers and farm businesses to review a wide range of both business and personal resilience components.'

It will also encourage those in the rural community to identify strengths, and give them access to further guidance and support.